The Fears Within

The Other Kind

Androphobia- Fear of Men

Not much shook Evan Garten. Even the time when she learned that her best friend had been murdered in cold blood she hadn’t been shaken, only sad. The thing that really bothered her was what the murderer did to her friend before she died. That bothered her. Disgusted her. Shook her to the bone. Stained her life.

But when her mother informed her that she wouldn’t be going to her all-girls private school anymore because of monetary problems, it all changed.

“Evelyn? Sweetheart? Come here a second, would you?” Her mother called to her from downstairs.

Evan ran to the railing and looked down, her short, black hair brushing her chin. “What’s up mom?” She asked.

“I have some news for you honey, you want to come down here?” Her mother asked. Evan felt a stab of annoyance at her mother’s cautious tone. She always did this. Asking Evan’s permission every time she spoke to her. It seemed as if everything her mother said to her these days was framed in the form of a question. But something about her mother’s voice made her start to make her way slowly down the stairs.

“Hi honey, can I tell you something?” Her mother asked as soon as Evan’s foot hit the ground floor.

Evan rolled her eyes. “Sure, mom.”

Her mom took a deep breath and looked down at the papers in her hands, biting her lower lip. Evan craned her neck discreetly and felt her heart drop a bit. Bills.

It hadn’t been easy since her dad had left. With all the death in the air it had seemed to be too much for him. So he moved back to his hometown and forgot about Evan and her mom. Except for the check he occasionally sent them they hadn’t talked to him in two years. That had been around the time Evan had become a Sophomore and started going to Saint Augusta’s School for Girls. It was also the time Evan had been dumped by her boyfriend of a year, Jake.

He had said she had become ‘weird ever since Emily had died.’ But Evan wasn’t weird. And Emily hadn’t died, she was murdered.

All the men had disappeared out of her life in less than a month. But Evan didn’t mind. She didn’t need them. Emily’s death had shown her what men could do to girls like her.

“Mom if it has something to do with our- our finances, it’s okay. You can tell me.” Evan’s voice dropped consolingly, as her mother looked on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry. It’s just been so hard since… But it’s okay, right?” Her mom’s lip shook. “I know you aren’t going to like this honey, but bear with me, okay?”

Evan nodded, not liking at all where this was going.

“We’re running low on money, so- so this year I’m going to have to take you out of Saint Augusta’s, okay?” Her mom finished quietly.

Evan froze, she definitely wasn’t liking this.

“I’ll be putting you in the local public high school, Ivy Hall. It’s co-ed, alright?” She added unnecessarily.

Evan sat down in the kitchen chair, her vision going tunnel. Co-ed. It- it had to be some nightmare. She couldn’t go there, not with, with them. The boys.

After Emily’s death, her break up, and her father’s departure, her mother had taken Evan to a psychiatrist, thinking all the emotional blows would be hard on Evan. The doctor only had to use one session to deduce that Evan was suffering from a deep fear of men. She explained to her mother that it had probably started with learning about Emily’s murder and what the murderer had done, along with being abandoned by the two most important men in her life at the time.